With the improvement in electronic components, the memory capacity of electronic devices such as selective call receivers has increased. Selective call receivers receive selective call messages and store the messages in message storage slots for review at a later time. The number of message storage slots is limited. As new messages arrive, old messages must necessarily be deleted to accomodate the new messages, for example in a first received, first deleted method. If the user wishes to review older messages, they may have been deleted. With improved memory capacity, selective call receivers can store more messages for review at a later time. However, as the number of stored messages increases, the ease of managing the messages so that the user can easily retrieve a specific message decreases.
One approach to handling messages by a selective call receiver was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,901, wherein a method for handling individual messages transmitted for and received by the selective call receiver and common messages transmitted for several selective call receivers and received by the selective call receiver is described. However, the method described does not allow the user to allocate the memory nor does it provide any means for managing a large number of stored individual messages.
Thus, what is needed is a method in a memory with a large capacity for storing messages that allows the user to allocate source files within the memory in a personalized manner and allows the user to easily retrieve a message when desired.